Ryoko Saotome: Those who forget the past...
by Thrythlind
Summary: Akane Saotome explains to some of her co-workers a little bit about the little monster that set her on the road to being a police officer. Side Story to RS.


((Note: this would be about five years after the  
epilogue of Ryoko Saotome. The flashback parts range  
from about eight to ten years after episode 18.))  
  
"Oh, wow," Karan said, impressed as he looked over  
Akane's shoulder. "That's very good."   
  
"Hey," Akane said, looking down at her little  
doodle. "It's just a doodle."  
  
"If that's doodling," the officer said. "I'd love  
to see a full sketch." He leaned in a little closer  
to the paper, hands setting on the chair so he could  
lean in close.  
  
"Maybe later, Karan," Akane said, glancing at the  
hands on the chair to either side of her. The kryn  
was looking for some action as usual. If he didn't  
back off of her soon, he'd get some action of a  
different kind.  
  
"Maybe on our next date?" he asked, smirking.   
Akane frowned and tapped her fingers warningly.   
  
Karan was the first and last time Akane had dated  
within the job pool. Unlike the amiable breakup she'd  
had with a lot of her other boyfriends, he didn't seem  
able to tell that he wasn't wanted in that way. Which  
made him unwanted in a rather dangerous way.  
  
"Karan," Akane said. "As I was told by a good  
friend of mine before she was a friend. Go over there  
and chase that mouse. Unless you want a demonstration  
of Anything Goes Gun Arts Pistol Whipping."  
  
The kryn immediately stepped away and shrugged as  
if he hadn't just been scared back.  
  
"I'll see you tonight, then," he said, and walked  
away.  
  
"Perverted NEKOJIN," Akane called out. In the time  
since Ayeka had met with the assorted "cat races" in  
the galaxy, that particular word had fallen into  
intense disfavor. As far as they were concerned,  
calling them a nekojin was little better than calling  
them dirty little animals just a little raised from  
the mud.  
  
Several people, almost all of the cat races, had  
looked up in irritation to see what had brought on the  
use of that word.  
  
Then they looked down again and returned to their  
work. It was well known in the Galaxy Police office  
that Karan N'Jar WAS a dirty little animal just a  
little raised from the mud.   
  
Also, anybody who could get Akane Saotome riled up  
enough to used such an insult deserved it.   
Especially since she didn't like the description any  
more than the rest of them did.  
  
"He is right you know," a Ctarl Ctarl said, coming  
to step in beside Akane. "You CAN draw well, you  
should try to sell something sometime."  
  
~If only you knew, Aisha~ Akane thought, thinking  
of a certain popular manga that she could see at least  
three people reading right now. It didn't get  
distributed often, as the author had another job that  
used a lot of time, but it was well done. "Well, it's  
just something to do in my free time. I wanted to be  
an artist when I was a kid, but I wouldn't leave this  
job even if I did become a successful artist."  
  
"Why did you choose to become a police officer?"  
the Ctarl Ctarl emissary asked.  
  
"That goes back to when I was a kid, too," Akane  
said.  
  
**********  
  
The kindergarten seemed perfectly normal for a few  
moments. Lots of kids with dark hair sitting in  
little desks waiting to be taught the basic  
fundamentals. There were only two exceptions to this  
normalcy.   
  
The first was a rather large boy, though his face  
was more angular than normal, sort of like his mother.  
He almost looked like he belonged in the next grade,  
and he was quite strong for his age too. That wasn't  
what made him not normal, however, the not normal part  
came from the little fangs that showed when he yawned,  
spoke, or otherwise opened his mouth. At the moment  
he was gritting his teeth in rage.  
  
The second was a rather petulant little Chinese  
girl with orange, not red, but orange hair. Further  
offsetting her from the normal was the fact that her  
ears came to a definite, elfin point. She was picking  
at her school uniform as if it were something  
distasteful while chatting animatedly with the little  
boy.  
  
"My daddy is powerful," she said idly. "My daddy  
can beat your daddy even when my daddy is a duck.   
And my mommy says Ranma beat my daddy. So your daddy   
is not even second. My mommy could beat up your daddy.   
Tenchi can already leap twice his own height, my daddy   
is teaching me how to leap. My Daddy can fly. Maybe   
Tenchi's mommy will teach Tenchi how to fly? Then   
Tenchi will come and take me away like a prince and a   
princess in a story. Will your mommy teach you how fly?   
Can your mommy fly? Can your DADDY fly?"   
  
A five year old Sano Hibiki twitched angrily as he  
turned, with gritted teeth to glare at Lotion. Just  
then a new "unusual" student walked into the class  
room.  
  
"I bet Akane knows how to fly already," Lotion said  
already as the new girl walked in. Sano's eyes were  
locked on the girl suddenly and flaming angry.  
  
Said girl had deep green hair with just the right  
touch of silver as to appear that her hair was spun  
from emeralds. She had slitted cat's eyes, as blue as  
the most perfect sapphire. Her black tail swished  
happily behind her as she came into the classroom and  
proceeded to wait for the teacher to show up.  
  
At five years old these features made her cute as a  
button. Though there were more than a few parents  
that had commented on her future as a heartbreaker.   
Like her parents in many ways.  
  
"Oh, hiya!" Akane said as she noticed Sano. She  
had seen him once or twice when 'Auntie' Ukyou and  
Hibiki-san came over, but the boy had never really  
talked to her yet. She was more familiar with the  
older Hibiki's really, but she guessed the boy was  
just shy.  
  
The orange haired-girl she vaguely recognized as  
one of the Amazons. She didn't see the Amazons that  
often, sometimes it seemed that her parents didn't  
want their kids to play with the Amazons. She'd heard  
something about "waiting for proof that the outsider  
laws don't apply to children," but didn't know what  
was meant by that.  
  
"Oh! Hi, Akane-san!" the orange-haired girl said,  
suddenly adopting a rather awe-struck demeanor. Akane  
blinked and froze in mid wave, still not having  
noticed that Sano was growling at her for some reason.  
"You are RANMA'S daughter, yes?"  
  
"Uh huh," Akane said hesitantly, nodding in  
confusion.  
  
"Would you be my friend?" Kimchi asked. "Are you a  
great warrior like your father? Or a witch like your  
mother?"  
  
"Hey, 'Kaasan is not a witch!!" Akane said angrily,  
her tail fluffed out and then she sat down in a huff.   
"And I am not a warrior. That's what my BROTHER wants  
to do. HE'S the one that wants to be the newest great  
martial artist." Lotion looked vaguely disappointed,   
she thought sure her Aunt Ran-Ran said that Ryoko  
Saotome was a witch.  
  
"You introduce me to brother then?" she asked.   
"Maybe we'll spar!"  
  
"Saotome," Sano growled. Akane blinked and looked  
around for her brother for a moment. Usually growled  
last names were directed at him by teachers or  
whoever. She finally blinked, confused, and looked to  
Sano.  
  
"Are you talking to me?" Akane asked finally.  
  
"Am I talking to you?" Sano repeated angrily.  
  
"Well, there's no one behind me," Akane said. "So  
you must be talking to me."  
  
"QUIT LAUGHING AT ME!!!" Sano shouted angrily.   
Akane was taken aback, no one had ever yelled her like  
that before.  
  
"What did I do?" she asked.  
  
"You KNOW!!" Sano growled angrily. Akane was saved  
from responding as the teacher came in. Sano quietly  
growled for some reason that perplexed her.  
  
**********  
  
"So what do you want to be when you grow up?" the  
teacher asked Kimchi.  
  
"I am a princess of the Amazon tribe," Kimchi said.  
"I will be matriarch when I grow up."  
  
"That's nice," the teacher said, he was usually  
somewhat bored with the interviews, but for the moment  
he was very interested. Interested, but also very  
pained.  
  
"And what would you like to be, Hibiki?" the  
teacher asked.  
  
"I'm going to be martial artist!" Sano said.   
"Better than Ranma."  
  
"Ano..." Akane said quietly.  
  
"And you, Saotome?" the teacher asked.  
  
"I want to be a drawer!" Akane declared cheerfully.  
There was some snickering behind her. "What's so  
funny, she asked."  
  
"It's artist, Saotome," the teacher said.  
  
"What is artist, Sensei?" Akane asked, confused,  
and hurt by all the laughter that accompanied the  
question.  
  
"An artist is someone who draws," the teacher  
explained. "So you want to be an artist when you grow  
up?"  
  
"No, I don't want to be an artist," Akane said.   
"My brother wants to be an artist."  
  
"But you said you liked to draw," the teacher  
continued.  
  
"Hai," Akane said.  
  
"An artist is someone who draws," the teacher said.  
Akane's eyes looked confused for a moment. She  
recovered quickly, however.  
  
"Hai," Akane said. "I want to be the best artist  
ever!!" Unfortunately, Sano was distracted enough  
that the only thing he heard was the last sentence.  
  
**********  
  
"Go away," the girl said to Akane. "Go away!"  
  
"Umm," Akane said, confused.  
  
"Shew!" the girl said. "Go! Shew, go away! Go  
chase that mouse over there."  
  
~Why won't anyone talk to me?~ Akane asked herself  
as her tail flicked about angrily.  
  
**********  
  
Akane started walking out of the school looking  
rather dejected. Not many of the other kids had  
wanted to have anything to do with her. Her tail  
drooped sadly as she considered that. Sano had  
growled at her all day and that Lotion girl had  
treated her like she was Sailor Moon come to life, but  
that was it.  
  
It was like there was something about her that made  
the other kids want to avoid her or something. She  
couldn't think of why that would be so. She got along  
fine with most of the kids that came to visit with  
their parents. She just didn't understand it.  
  
Suddenly her thoughts were cut off as her way  
forward was cut off by something.  
  
"So," Sano growled. "My kaasan and tousan are  
weak?"  
  
"I didn't say..." Akane started, nervously.  
  
"Quiet Saotome!" Sano growled. "We'll see who's  
weak."   
  
Akane desparately tried to think any of the things  
she had seen her parents, or even her brother,  
practicing as her adrenal response was triggered.   
Panicked, Akane tried the only technique she knew: run  
away. The chase was on.  
  
As it was, Sano wasn't much more dangerous than  
most other five year olds, so the chase looked a lot  
like two little kids chasing each other around an  
empty playground. Which is exactly what it was.  
  
"Quit bouncing around and come back here!" Sano  
shouted as his quarry panickly moved through and under  
the playscape.  
  
"Leave me alone!!" Akane shouted. "Tenchi fights,  
not me!" Akane failed to note where she was heading  
in her panic and ran into one of the steel bars that  
made up the jungle gym, just as she was turning to  
face it. She covered her face with her hands and  
proceeded to bawl her eyes out.  
  
"Now I got you, Saotome," Sano growled, smirking.  
  
"Hey! Sis!" a voice said. "Are you okay? What  
happened?" Tenchi Saotome, black and silver hair tied  
back in a pigtail imitating his father, landed near  
his crying sister, looking worried.  
  
Akane wailed and shook her head, still holding the  
front of her face. She certainly wasn't going to  
admit that she had run from Sano though. Especially  
not to her brother, he'd tease her forever.  
  
"Let's get you to the nurse and call home," Tenchi  
said, picking her up and running into the school.  
  
Sano nervously watched the two disappear back into  
the school.   
  
**********  
  
"Jerk," Ranma said as he walked out of the  
principal's office, slamming the door just lightly  
enough not to damage it. His patience was thin, but  
he was only making a point, he didn't want to do any  
damage...yet.  
  
He quieted down quickly upon seeing Akane in her  
mother's lap, eyes frightened and red from crying.   
Minagi sat quietly in her stroller and watched   
  
"You feeling okay kid?"  
  
"She's calming down," Ryoko said, stroking her  
hair. Her appearance showed that her own nerves were  
frayed and that she was probably in the category of  
"calming down" as well.  
  
The bandage over her broken nose was quite  
disconcerting. They had been trying, mostly  
unsuccessfully, to inure themselves to the fact that  
Tenchi would probably be getting hurt quite a lot  
considering his desire to be a martial artist. It was  
an unwelcome expectation.  
  
Something like this happening to Akane, who had  
little interest in fighting other than to watch her  
parents and friends, was an unwelcome surprise.  
  
"She was playing with Sano," Tenchi said helpfully.  
He had already said that, of course, but he was sort  
of looking for some attention himself.  
  
"I'll talk to Ryouga and Ukyou," Ranma said. Akane  
froze for a moment. "Maybe they can tell him to play  
a little more carefully."  
  
"Yeah," Ryoko agreed. Then she looked to Tenchi  
and Akane and smiled. "Now how about some ice cream  
to cheer up?"  
  
"Hai!" Akane and Tenchi shouted together, though  
Akane's voice sounded strange with the bandages over  
her broken nose.  
  
**********  
  
"So what had you so mad at the principal," Ryoko  
asked quietly.   
  
She was watching Tenchi play a video game, some new  
game called Mortal Kombat or something, while Akane  
watched. It looked like a more violent version of  
that Streetfighter game he was always playing before.   
It would have concerned most parents, but for Ryoko it  
was rather trivial. She knew Ranma didn't approve of  
the 'fatalities' though, or the inaccuracies in the  
martial arts techniques. So she'd probably tell him to  
stop playing after a moment. For the moment Tenchi  
was away from hearing range though.  
  
She glanced to Minagi, and wondered how much the  
one year old girl understood, but she WASN'T about to  
leave her unattended in any fashion.  
  
"He suggested that we find a more 'appropriate'  
school for our children," Ranma growled. "Or give  
them home schooling. He didn't think the other  
students would "take to them" very well. Said it  
would be better if they left."  
  
"Excuse me," Ryoko said. "What better school is  
there for the moment? Shampoo's kids, the Hibikis,  
Kaneda Tendo, your sister, and that Tarou kid all go  
to that school! What makes Akane and Tenchi diff..."  
She trailed off as she noticed that Ranma was turning  
tight-lipped.  
  
"He didn't say exactly," Ranma tried to forestall.  
  
"This is about what they inherited from me, right?"  
Ryoko asked, referring to the cat's eyes and tail  
Akane and Tenchi both had. The parts of her that most  
clearly screamed "I am not human."  
  
"He didn't say," Ranma repeated, irritably. He  
looked back and sighed. "He's playing THAT game  
again." He frowned and then smirked at Ryoko, she  
caught the drift and smirked back.  
  
"MMMMmmmm," Ryoko said loudly. "This triple fudge  
banana split is great, isn't it honey?" Akane and  
Tenchi froze for a moment, resulting in Tenchi's  
character getting pummeled.  
  
"Yeah, I guess the kids don't want any," he  
said. "They're too busy playing video games. More  
for us and the baby then." Tenchi was almost  
instantly at the table with Akane close behind.  
  
**********  
  
"We spoke to Saotome-san today," Ryouga said to his  
son. "His daughter got hurt while you and she were  
playing."  
  
"All that happened was she ran into the jungle  
gym," Sano said bitterly.  
  
"They told us that," Ukyou said. "We just wanted  
to make sure you understood that you can't play the  
same games with her that you play with your brother  
and sister. It's not safe" Of course, Ukyou meant  
that it wasn't safe for Akane, but she didn't make  
that clear.  
  
"H..hai," Sano said a little irritably.  
  
"Besides," Ryouga said. "She's a Saotome, you have  
to watch out for them." In this case he meant that  
the Saotomes were family friends and they had to watch  
each other's backs, but, it didn't come out that way  
to Sano.  
  
"Right, Dad," Sano said glumly. Even his own  
parents didn't think he could beat that girl. Well,  
he'd show them.  
  
**********  
  
"But I don't want to go," Akane said. Ryoko sighed  
irritably, yesterday Akane couldn't wait to go to  
school. Still, she shouldn't have been surprised  
after what had happened on the girl's first day.  
  
"Just be careful on the playground," Ryoko said.   
"And you'll be fine. If you need any help, your  
brother and Aunt Ranko are just down the hall. And if  
that little Amazon witch bothers you, just tell me,  
okay."  
  
"Lotion doesn't bother me," Akane said. "She wants  
to talk to all the time."  
  
"There, you see," Ryoko said, gritting her teeth at  
that. "You've got a friend already."  
  
"H..hai, kaasan," Akane sighed resignedly.  
  
**********  
  
"Akane you're hurt?" Lotion said in surprise.  
  
"I ran into the jungle gym," Akane said.  
  
"Oh," Lotion said. "It was an accident then." She  
seemed to be giving Akane an appraising look. Akane  
nodded and glanced nervously to Sano, who was glaring  
at her angrily. Akane winced and faced forward,  
sighing as the teacher came in.  
  
**********  
  
"What a coward," Aisha said, angrily. "Picking on  
a defenseless little girl." She winced and looked to  
Akane apologetically. "Oh, sorry about that, Akane."  
  
"Aisha," Akane said. "I WAS a defenseless little  
girl. So no problem from me. After that, Lotion  
started to treat me like some sort of anomaly that she  
couldn't figure out. I was the great Ranma's  
daughter, but I couldn't fight. She seemed to think  
that was weird."  
  
"So you chose to learn to defend yourself then?"  
Aisha said after a moment.  
  
"Nope," Akane said. "I never even told my parents  
what was going on. They had to find out later."  
  
"How did that happen?" Aisha asked.  
  
**********  
  
The sound of some one crying in the girl's room  
attracted the attention of a passing little girl and  
she blinked before following the sound to see what was  
wrong.  
  
The stalls were closed, but the girl could see some  
other child's shows touching the floor towards the end  
of the bathroom. She gave an exasperated breath of  
air as she recognized the bright red shoes and  
realized who they belonged to. Still, it was wrong to  
leave someone crying like that, even a weirdo girl  
with a tail.  
  
"Hello?" the girl asked. "My name's Yuki, are you  
okay?" The crying stopped for a moment.  
  
"Go away," Akane said finally in a dry voice.  
  
"Are you okay," the girl asked.   
  
She saw from the position of Akane's feet that the  
girl was standing up. Suddenly the last stall door  
flew open and Akane stuck her head out, an enraged,  
tear-streaked face appeared. Her hair had been  
hacked ridiculously short and left ugly and uneven.  
  
"There, you can laugh at me now!" Akane said. "Now  
go away!!" She slammed the door shut again and  
continued crying. The result was not quite what Akane  
expected.  
  
~Somebody cut her HAIR!~ Yuki realized.   
  
She was still very young, but she was old enough to  
understand the special bond between a girl and her  
hair. It was something sacred, something not to be  
trifled with. She couldn't put that in such words,  
but she could voice the emotions fairly well.  
  
"OH MY KAMI-SAMA!!!" she screamed, and ran to get  
the principal. ~Something MUST be done about THIS!!~  
  
**********  
  
"SANO HIBIKI!!!!"  
  
Sano winced. When his father yelled like that it  
was bad. When his mother yelled like that, it  
generally meant the apocalypse for the individual  
named. To his knowledge, of the three Hibiki kids, he  
was the only yet to provoke both of them to yelling at  
once.  
  
His sister, Midori, and brother, Jiro, looked up in  
shock and then turned to him in pity.  
  
"What did you do, Sano?" Midori asked as the  
echoing quited down. Sano was quietly and shakily  
walking as if heading for a death sentence.  
  
"I've never heard both of them yell," Jiro  
remarked, impressed and frightened. Ukyou appeared in  
the doorway to the room and glared at her son,  
pointing at him.  
  
"You come here now!" Ukyou said in a low and angry  
voice.  
  
"Hai, Okaasan," Sano said quietly, walking out of  
the room with his mother watching.  
  
"I can't believe you," Ukyou said, ashamed.  
  
**********  
  
"THE LITTLE MONSTER CUT YOUR HAIR!!!!?" Aisha  
shouted. Eyes were directed toward them again.  
  
"Sssh, sssh," Akane said. "Keep it down." It was  
too late, they were suddenly all surrounded by the  
female police officers all looking aghast.  
  
"That's horrible," one of them said. "Who...wait,  
your hair is the same as always."  
  
"She's talking about this little deliquent hellion  
that tormented her in her early school years," Aisha  
declared.  
  
"Ohhh," the staff said. "Well, get on with it."  
  
"Yes," Aisha said. "Is that finally when you  
started training to defend yourself?"  
  
"No," Akane said embrassedly. "I still wasn't  
interested in fighting except as a spectator."  
  
"So what happened to change your mind?" somebody  
asked.  
  
"As I remember it was assault and battery," an  
older voice said as Captain Makibi walked into the  
discussion, ignoring the surprised looks she got for  
not breaking up the casual gathering. "That was a  
very bad event."  
  
"Hai," Akane said, growling and angry.  
  
**********  
  
"Hey," Yuki said, looking around. "Where's Akane?"  
  
"Yeah," another girl said, also confused as she  
looked up and down the hall. "Why isn't she here?"  
  
It was hard to miss the girl with that emerald hair  
and that tail, and she almost never missed a chance to  
go out with her friends, now that she had some.   
  
Yuki imagined it had something to do with living up  
at that shrine with her parents, there probably  
weren't all that many visitors.  
  
"I'm sure she'll show up," Yuki said scratching her  
head and leaning back against the lockers on the wall.  
The school was a converted high school, and they saw  
no reason not to leave the lockers even though these  
were just elementary school kids.  
  
The knocking sound on the locker behind caused both  
girls to jump in shock and a little fear. The  
knocking continued to come from the shut locker. A  
locker plenty large enough to hold a small for her age  
second grader.  
  
"Uhh," Yuki said. "Akane?" The knocking got more  
incessant.  
  
About fifteen minutes later the school was working  
on a way to get the girl out of the locker. It seemed  
that the keys to the lockers had been lost and no one  
could find the combination. The appearance of a  
practically terrified Ranma and Ryoko caused quite a  
stir. This was mostly because their appearance was  
just that.  
  
One moment they weren't there, the next moment they  
were. Ryoko flew to the locker, and practically  
shoved everybody out of the way. Sticking her head  
through the solid metal locker, without damaging it,  
acquired quite a few more stares.  
  
Whatever she said to Akane was too quite to hear,  
but when she came out she was boiling bad and using a  
small dagger of energy to cut open the locker. After  
cutting the door open, Ranma ripped it off its  
hinges. Then they cautiously, gently pulled their  
daughter out.  
  
Akane's tail had been pulled between her legs and  
used to tie her hands together, and this time she was  
bald. Needless to say she had been crying for a long  
time, though the sock being used to gag her had kept  
her muffled enough not to be heard until she started  
hitting the side of the locker.  
  
"That little rat," Ranma growled as he untied her  
tail. Ryoko had removed the gag and was hugging her  
terrified daughter, talking to her softly. Ryoko was  
thinking the same thing Ranma was.   
  
The first time this had happened she had wanted to  
do something about the little hellion herself, but  
Ranma had convinced her to let the Hibikis handle it.   
And they had tried, Ryoko had to give them that. Now  
it was their turn.  
  
**********  
  
"She's had nightmares for the past two days," Ranma  
growled. "She's terrified about the idea of walking  
out of the house."  
  
"Yes, Midori and Jiro told us," Ryouga said,  
ashamedly. Ukyou sighed and looked down away from the  
angry eyes of two of her closest friends.  
  
"We're cutting Sano out of our school," Ukyou said.  
"Until he can prove himself to be disciplined we're  
not going to train him any longer."  
  
"That's not good enough," Ryoko snapped.  
  
"It is the best way I think to get it through to  
him that this is a disgrace," Ukyou returned angrily.   
  
She wasn't really angry at Ranma and Ryoko, they  
had every right to do a number of things in  
retaliation. She just wasn't willing to abandon her  
son, even if the problem were his own making.  
  
"I'm sorry," Nabiki said from where she was sitting  
with the other individual that Ranma and Ryoko had  
consulted. "They're right, just cutting Sano off from  
learning isn't going to be enough. He still knows  
what you've already taught him."  
  
"He might even decide it's her fault and this will  
escalate again," Kiyone said. "I heard the boy myself  
yell at the two of you that he wasn't going to let a  
'Saotome' get the better of him by running off and  
tattling everytime she lost."  
  
"It's just like when you hated me," Ranma said.   
Ryoko's narrowed eyes revealed everything she thought  
on the matter. She wasn't going to bring up Nagi  
right now, but the comparison was heavy on her mind.  
  
"And Akane can't defend herself," Ryoko growled  
angrily finally.  
  
"What if she could," Ukyou asked suddenly.  
  
"Excuse me?" Ranma asked.  
  
"Akane isn't interested in being a fighter," Ryoko  
reminded everybody.  
  
"Whether she's interested in it or not," Ryouga  
said, following his wife's lead. The alternative was  
the Saotomes pressing charges. "I don't think this  
will be the last time she gets challenged because of  
who her parents are."  
  
"They may be right," Nabiki said reluctantly. "She  
might need some teaching. And maybe taking her out of  
school for a little bit of training trip would be a  
good idea."  
  
"I'm not taking her on a training trip," Ranma  
said. He frowned though.  
  
"Please, Ranchan," Ukyou said. "Maybe if she's  
capable of standing up to him, then maybe he won't  
hate her anymore. I don't want to see my son grow up  
to become a mindless thug."  
  
"It worked with us," Ryouga said, hopefully.  
  
"It didn't work with Nagi," Ryoko growled.  
  
"That's what we're trying to avoid here," Kiyone  
said. "Another Nagi."  
  
"I'm sure Hinako will be willing to do some  
home-teaching while you have her training," Nabiki  
added. "My stepmother has been interested in getting  
back on the job market."  
  
"Please Ranma," Ryouga begged, while Ukyou looked  
on, hopefully. "Ryoko?"  
  
"We'll try it," Ranma said.  
  
**********  
  
"I trained with my parents and the Hibikis for four  
years. It didn't work very well," Akane said. "But  
that might be my fault."  
  
"Huh?" Aisha asked.  
  
"Well," Kiyone said. "Detective Saotome was  
supposed to use just enough force to show that she  
wasn't a push over anymore. Instead she publically  
humiliated him, by wiping the floor with him. All it  
did was spur him to get better than her."  
  
"Wasn't he cut off from any training?" somebody  
asked.  
  
"He found ways to train himself," Akane said. "And  
he'd always been more into that stuff than I was. So  
he caught up with me kinda fast. I had to work hard  
to stay competitive with him."  
  
"What happened eventually?" Aisha asked.  
"He came by near the end of senior year with some  
sort of magical artifact," Akane said. "He used it,  
and vanished. His parents were horrified, nobody's  
seen him since. I feel sorry for Auntie Ukyou and  
Hibiki-sensei, but I can't say I was too sad."  
  
"I can understand why, after going through all  
that," the other women agreed sagely.  
  
"And why are you all in uniform, Aisha?" Akane  
asked. "I don't think we have any sort of ceremony to  
attend."  
  
"Oh, that's what I was coming to see you about,"  
Aisha said, reluctantly. "I'm being called back home  
to be an ambassador."  
  
"What?!" Akane gasped cheerfully. "That's great!!   
Congratulations, Aisha!!"  
  
"It's just this little rock in space," Aisha said.   
"Not even a planet." Poor Aisha had no idea that she  
was heading to her first encounter with the Outlaw  
Star.  
  
"Still," Akane said. "It's better than being an on  
loan officer from the Ctarl Ctarl. Way to go...wait,  
that means I get a new partner."  
  
"He's supposed to arrive today," Kiyone confirmed.   
"Haven't gotten the file on him yet, of course, but  
he's supposed to be native to this area. So they  
assigned him to the Sol system."  
  
"Excuse me," someone said from behind the large  
group of women. "I'm supposed to find my new partner  
here. I can't read these symbols, but that man over  
there said she was in this large group of women when I  
showed it to him."  
  
Behind the group of women was a tall, large, brown  
haired man with fangs and an angular face looking  
rather tired. He scratched his head as he looked down  
at the paper again. A gasp of horrified recognition  
almost drew his attention up.  
  
"Wait...I figured it out," Sano said proudly. "I'm  
looking for a Detective First  
Class....Akane....Saotome." He spoke slowly, voice  
turning to a whimper as he stumbled over her name.   
  
He blinked once and looked up to where Captain  
Makibi, with her dark green hair, stood next to a  
woman with lighter, shining emerald hair in one long  
pony tail. A young woman who was even now crushing the arms  
of her chair and glaring at him with her teeth  
clenched.  
  
"Oh, the kami hate me," he said quietly. Kiyone  
quietly took Akane's sidearm away while she was  
distracted and made sure it was out of reach.  
  
"Saaaaaaa-" Akane hissed under her breath.   
Suddenly Sano noted the eyes of the other women were  
all narrowed and glaring at him.  
  
"Uhh...you told them about the hair," he said.   
"Didn't you?"  
  
"-nnnnnoooo,"  
  
"We were just talking about you," Aisha confirmed.  
  
"Hiiiiiiii-"  
  
"This is going to hurt a lot," he said faintly.   
  
"-biiiiiiii-  
  
"Isn't it?" Sano finished.  
  
"-kiiiiii!"  
  
"Would it help if I said I was sorry?" Sano asked.  
  
The look in Akane's face as she slowly stood up  
said no. 


End file.
